Super Mario

Mario Kart - Baby Peach & Grand Prix Set

The full Mario Kart starting grid in brick form, and Baby Peach's Wiggler kart is the one that got me.

Brick Rated Score

4.1/5

Set 72036 · 2025

Pieces823

Minifigs4

Year2025

Set number72036

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The verdict

This is the big one from LEGO's first wave of proper Mario Kart sets, and it delivers the whole race-day fantasy: a starting gate, a podium, three karts that can actually launch shells, and Toad's little sweets wagon off to the side.

I had the most fun with Baby Peach's Wild Wiggler, a caterpillar enemy from the games reworked into a kart, because it is genuinely charming to build. It is not a display centerpiece and the price runs a touch high for the part count, but as a playset that captures the games, it lands. Best enjoyed by a Mario Kart fan who wants to stage races, not by an adult hunting for a shelf piece.

Best for: Mario Kart fans age 8 and up who want to actually race the karts, not just display them

The full review

What it is

This set is the headliner of LEGO's very first Mario Kart wave, and it tries to bottle a whole race rather than a single vehicle. You get a big starting gate, track barriers and traffic cones, a winners' podium, Toad's sweets wagon, Lakitu hovering on his cloud to wave the flag, and three karts lined up on the grid. The one that got me was Baby Peach in the Wild Wiggler, a wobbly caterpillar enemy from the games turned into a kart. It has no business being as fun as it is, and it built up quicker and with more personality than I expected. Lemmy's Landship and the Standard Bike round out the trio, and all three can fire shells, which is the detail kids will care about most.

The catch

I will be straight with you about where it wobbles. This is a 2025 set, and 2025 is the year stickers arrived in the Super Mario playsets after the theme had mostly avoided them. They are fine, but a few of those decorated panels would have popped more as printed pieces, and applying them is always the least relaxing part of a build. The starting gate is the other honest caveat: from the front it is genuinely impressive and reads exactly like the games, but walk around the back and it is mostly hollow and unfinished, which matters if you were hoping to display it in the round. And at roughly 79.99 USD for 823 pieces, you are paying a Nintendo-license premium more than a brick premium. None of this ruins it, but it keeps the set a very good playset rather than an all-timer.

Who it's for

Get this if you or the child you are building with loves Mario Kart and wants to actually play: line the karts up, drop the gate, launch shells, and put someone on the podium. The interactive and app side that the wider Super Mario theme leans on is not essential here, because the karts are perfectly playable as plain LEGO, which I think is a strength. Skip it if you are an adult collector chasing a clean display model, because the unfinished gate back and the sticker reliance will nag at you, and the price will sting for what ends up on the shelf. As a genuine, colorful, races-out-of-the-box playset though, it is easy to recommend.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building this is a lighthearted, low-stress few hours, closer to a series of quick wins than one grand engineering puzzle. The three karts and four figures mean you are constantly finishing a recognizable little thing, which keeps momentum up and makes it a lovely build to share with a younger builder. It is not challenging in the technical sense, but the pacing is smart: something is always coming together, and the figures give each stretch a satisfying payoff. The shell-launching mechanism on the karts is the one bit of real function, and it is simple enough that kids can trigger it themselves without anything jamming.

The standout parts are the karts' brand new wheels, which have the tyres molded directly onto the plastic hub, a fresh piece made for this Mario Kart line. Baby Peach, Lemmy, Toad and Lakitu are all buildable figures rather than standard minifigures, and they carry a lot of the set's character, with Lakitu's cloud being a nice touch to perch him on. Baby Peach's Wild Wiggler uses its curved sections cleverly to sell the caterpillar shape. On raw value the 823 pieces skew small and the license drives the price, so you are buying this for the play and the characters more than a bargain part count.

Fun facts

01This was part of LEGO's very first Mario Kart wave, launched in January 2025, the debut of karts within the wider Super Mario theme.
02Baby Peach's kart is the Wild Wiggler, based on a caterpillar enemy from the games that was reimagined as a drivable vehicle.
032025 marked the first time stickers appeared in the Super Mario playsets, which had previously stuck almost entirely to printed and plain pieces.
04Every kart in the set rolls on a newly designed wheel with the tyre molded straight onto the plastic hub.